ego
/ˈiːɡəʊ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Multicultural London English/ˈiɡo/
ego noun: the self, especially with a sense of self-importance.
Noun
ego (countable and uncountable, plural egos)
- The self, especially with a sense of self-importance.
- When every thought absorbs your attention completely, when you are so identified with the voice in your head and the emotions that accompany it that you lose yourself in every thought and every emotion, then you are totally identified with form and therefore in the grip of ego. Ego is a...1998, Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
- The most central part of the mind, which mediates with one's surroundings.
- In the well adjusted person the ego is the executive of the personality and is governed by the reality principle.1954, Calvin S. Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology
- ‘Everything begins with “I”, you mean. Which is ego,’ said Tom, placing an ankle behind his ear, ‘not id.’1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 13
- A person's self-esteem and opinion of themselves.
- Too many gay people "come out" publicly, yet fail to achieve truly healthy egos. They "adjust" to being less than whole or integrated persons.1976 February 7, Philip Gambone, “Coming Out: The Gay Identity Process”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 4
- My columns in the early days of the Labour government often featured John Prescott, who was in charge of transport as part of a mega-department created to match his ego.2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 60
- The individual from whose point of view a family tree or pedigree chart is drawn, or the reference point from whom kinship terminology is relative. (Used without the definite article the.)
- the cousin of ego on the father's side
Verb
ego (third-person singular simple present egos, present participle egoing, simple past and past participle egoed or ego'd)
- To damage someone's ego.
ego meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ego in Hindi
- psychoanalytic ego
- अहं ahã, अहम् aham
- the self
- अहं ahã
ego in Tamil
- இறுமாப்பு, திமிர், ஆணவம், அகம்பாவம், செருக்கு, அகங்காரம்
ego in Marathi
- अहंकार, अहंभाव
ego in Urdu
- psychoanalytic ego
- انا anā
- the self
- خاکسار xāksār, انا anā
More languagesFewer languages
- ego in Bengali
- আত্মা, আত্মমর্যাদা, অহম, অহংবোধ
- ego in Telugu
- అహం ahaṁ
- ego in Malayalam
- ജാട jāṭa, ഭള്ള് bhaḷḷŭ, ഊറ്റം ūṟṟaṁ, മൂച്ച് mūccŭ
- ego in Kannada
- ಅಹಂಕಾರ ahaṅkāra
- ego in Punjabi
- ਹਉਮੈਂ haumaĩ
- ego in Gujarati
- અહં ahã
- ego in Odia
- ଅହଂକାର
- ego in Nepali
- अहंकार
- ego in Arabic
- اَلْأَنَا al-ʔanā
- ego in Indonesian
- ego, diri
- ego in Persian
- آنمن ân-man, خود xod, نفس nafs
- ego in Vietnamese
- cái tôi
Examples of ego in a sentence
- Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.
- German interests were being damaged and Englishmen helped towards carrying out their egoïstic plans.
- Unfortunately, Andrew's colossal ego means people miss his profundity.
Synonyms of ego
Forms of ego
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | egos |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | egos |
| present participle | egoing |
| past participle | egoed |
| past | egoed |
| past participle | ego'd |
| past | ego'd |
Origin of ego
Borrowed from Latin ego (“I”). Chosen by Freud’s translator as a translation of his use of German Ich as a noun for this concept from the pronoun ich (“I”). Doublet of I and Ich.
Words formed from ego
- absolute ego
- alter ego
- auxiliary ego
- egoboo
- egoboost
- ego boost
- egocast
- egocentric
- egocentrically
- egocentricity
- egocentrism
- egocidal
- egocide
- ego death
- ego dissolution
- egodystonic
- ego-dystonic
- egoed
- ego-expansion
- egofag
- egofaggotry
- egofest
- egohood
- egoic
- egoical
- egoism
- egoist
- egoistic
- egoistical
- egoistically
- egoitis
- egoity
- egoless
- ego lifter
- ego lifting
- egolike
- egology
- ego loss
- egomania
- egomaniac
- ego-minded
- ego-mindedness
- egonomics
- egophony
- egophoric
- egoscan
- ego-self
- ego shooter
- egosurf
- ego surfing
- ego-surfing
- egosurfing
- egosyntonic
- ego-syntonic
- egotheism
- egotism
- egotist
- egotistic
- egotistical
- egotistically
Phrases with ego
Words that rhyme with ego
Questions about ego
- What does ego mean?
- Ego means the self, especially with a sense of self-importance.
- What is ego in Hindi?
- Ego in Hindi is अहं (ahã), अहम् (aham). See Ego meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ego?
- Ego can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ego?
- Ego is pronounced /ˈiɡo/ (Multicultural London English).
- What is the plural of ego?
- The plural of ego is egos.
Words near ego in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ego (page history and authors); ego (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ego (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ego (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഊറ്റം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಅಹಂಕಾರ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਹਉਮੈਂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); અહં (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ego (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ego (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “ego.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ego. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.